


Letting Go

by onereyofstarlight



Series: Thunderbird Prompt/Request Fills [2]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Family, Gen, Growing Up, Light Angst, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:48:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24126889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onereyofstarlight/pseuds/onereyofstarlight
Summary: Alan is getting older and Scott isn't ready. The rest of the family know that it can't last.
Series: Thunderbird Prompt/Request Fills [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1662397
Kudos: 16





	Letting Go

Scott and Gordon were chatting idly in the kitchen when the call came through.

Gordon flicked on the comm, hopping up on their Dad’s desk as he did so with an easy grin.

“Tracy Two, coming in for landing.” Alan’s voice wavered as he spoke and Scott frowned to hear it. Alan and Kayo had flown out to the mainland together that morning and there had been no word of any problems. No word that would give Alan a reason to be in the pilot’s seat.

He could hear Kayo murmuring indistinctly in the background, her tone reassuring.

“Uh sorry Tracy Island,” said Alan. “I mean we are approaching from the southwest. Are we cleared for landing?”

Scott could definitely hear the anxiety in Alan’s voice now, and he could feel the worry that lived in the pit of his stomach begin to chew its way out of its carefully controlled prison.

“Are you alright?” he demanded.

“What?” asked Alan, sounding startled. “Scott? I, uh, aren’t you on a mission?”

“Alan, focus,” said Kayo sharply.

“It was aborted,” said Scott. Abruptly, he stood up and made his way over to the desk, glancing at Gordon as he did so. His brother didn’t seem half as worried as he should have been to hear their baby brother’s voice at the helm of the family jet. “Alan, why are you piloting? Is Kayo hurt?”

“Scott, am I clear to make a landing approach or not?” His brother’s voice was high, the nerves he must be feeling finally displaying themselves.

Gordon hit the comm button. “Alan, you’re clear. We’ll see you in ten minutes.”

He hopped off the desk and shrugged in response to Scott’s scowl.

“Look, they needed to land,” he said indifferently. “You can hash it out on the ground, couldn’t you hear he was feeling stressed?”

“Why was he piloting?” asked Scott, his mind running over all the updates he had received from an excitable Alan over the day. “What happened?”

Gordon looked determinedly past Scott, his eyes fixed on the dot that hovered over the horizon.

Scott narrowed his eyes.

“You know.”

“Look, let’s just go and meet them,” said Gordon, uncomfortably.

“And get this over with,” he muttered under his breath as he turned away.

***

“Kayo, what’s going on?” Scott demanded, striding into the hangar with Gordon trailing unhappily behind him. Virgil looked up from his workstation in the corner, startled at the intrusion.

“Why was Alan piloting? What aren’t you telling me?”

Kayo’s eyes flashed as she glanced over at him, helping Alan out of the cockpit.

“I took Alan for his first flying lesson. Since it didn’t seem like you were going to.”

And that stung. It really did, because Scott knew she was right. Scott had seen all the hints Alan had been dropping since his fourteenth birthday but he had forced himself to ignore them all, intent on making sure Alan passed Algebra II and didn’t get absorbed into the TV realm that he spent so much time watching. He had more important responsibilities to fulfil towards his brother.

Even so, the thought of _missing_ _it_ hurt just as much. The thought that he wouldn’t get to see Alan’s eye light up as he took to the sky under his own power for the first time. That he’d missed the little whoop of exhilaration that Alan always made on rollercoasters, but this time yelled 35,000 feet in the air. That he wouldn’t get to look over at his youngest brother with a thrill in his heart that sung out as they flew together.

His Dad was missing it, and now he couldn’t even witness it for him in his stead.

His hands curled into fists at his side, and hurt and anger and envy balled up uncomfortably in his chest. He couldn’t breathe as he looked into Kayo’s cool eyes, waiting to hear what he had to say.

“You had no right!”

The words that burst from his lips were a surprise to him, and even Kayo took a step back at the radiating fury.

“How dare you take him up there, especially without my permission!”

“Scott, you’re not his guardian, I asked Grandma and– ”

“I don’t _care_ ,” he said, cutting her off. “I don’t _care_ that you asked Grandma, when was the last time she flew? You should have talked to me, you should have told me what you were doing.”

“You wouldn’t have listened.”

“You don’t know that!”

It didn’t matter that Kayo was right, it didn’t matter that Scott and everybody else knew it. All he could feel was the betrayal that they hadn’t trusted him. That all day, his brother could have been hurt or killed and he would have been none the wiser.

“Scott,” murmured Virgil, moving forwards and placing a hand on his shoulder.

Scott shrugged him off and rounded on Alan.

“And **_you_**. You think you can do these things, but you just _can’t_ , Alan! You’re too young!”

Silence rang throughout the hangar.

Scott breathed heavily as he looked at Alan. His face was white, lips pressed together in thinly suppressed rage.

“How old were you, Scott?’ asked Alan in a low voice.

“I’m sorry?” asked Scott, trying to shoot an exasperated look at Virgil. His brother had been his second, his rock, his guiding force since their father had disappeared in a cloud of smoke and unburnt fuel. His brother was avoiding his gaze. The hot hammer of truth struck him as he looked at Virgil.

They’d all known this was happening.

“How old?” repeated the icy voice. “When did Dad first take you up Scott?”

Scott remembered it like yesterday, the moment he had fallen head over heels with flying, a place where he could feel free and in control and like no one in the world could take this away from him. He’d held on tightly to the past up until that moment, clinging to his memories of an unbroken family. For the first time, it had felt like change could bring good.

“I was fourteen,” he said quietly.

“And how old am I?”

Scott didn’t want to answer that. Alan had shot up over the last three months, his limbs gangly and gawky as he moved, trying to adjust to a newly grown body. He looked up to Scott, but Scott could begin to see the tendrils of frustration and rebellion that would soon change that, even if he never quite matched him in height. He’d always thought his role as the eldest brother would make it easy for him to be cool, slipping into the casual attitude of sharing beers and swapping stories.

Alan was different.

Alan had been nine when his father vanished. Answering his question meant admitting it had been five long years that stretched back in his mind. Answering his question meant admitting that Alan was growing up without his parents. Answering his question meant admitting that he had to leave his casual big brother persona in an old life.

“I’ve been waiting for _months_ , Scott! I’ll be fifteen soon,” cried Alan, “learning to drive. You all learnt to fly before you could drive, why can’t I?”

At the end of the day, it boiled down to one thing.

“It’s not fair.”

Scott deflated.

“I’m sorry, Alan,” he said quietly. “I guess I don’t want to admit you’re growing up.”

“We all are, Scott,” said Gordon. “None of us are kids anymore.”

“You’re still a minor.”

“Yeah, but I’ll be a major in a month,” he replied with a grin, his smile only growing wider amidst the groaning that filled the hangar.

Scott nudged Alan.

“Want me to take you up there next time?”

Alan beamed, bright and hopeful as he stared up at Scott with shining eyes.

“I’ve been _waiting_ to hear you ask me that!”

He hugged Alan tightly, unsurprised when Gordon jumped in as well.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Kayo slinking away. He left his brothers, the older two exclaiming appropriately as Alan shared his tales of heroics in the air, and followed her.

“Kayo,” he called out after her.

She turned around, arms folded tightly across her chest, and waited as he jogged over to her.

“Kayo, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah Scott?” she said coldly. “You should be. What was that?”

Scott floundered for a moment and she saved him from answering with a pitying shake of the head.

“You can’t keep him young forever,” she said quietly. “And you’re not his Dad. I don’t regret it for a second, you understand me?”

Scott nodded.

“I know,” he said quietly. “But he feels so much younger than fourteen. I just wanted him to be ready.”

“Fourteen _is_ young,” she said. “But it doesn’t always feel like that when you are fourteen. You’ve got to give him some room to grow, or he’ll resent you forever.”

She gave him a hard stare.

“Have you begun to think about when you’ll let him join you out there?” she asked.

“Out… you mean on rescues?”

“Yes.”

Scott blinked and took a step back.

“He’s too young for _that_ , surely.”

“Right now he is,” she agreed. “But not forever, and not for long. You know Alan as well as I do, he won’t sit back quietly forever. And if you don’t train him, he’ll find his own way.”

Visions of Alan sneaking on board Thunderbird One and firing her up with the hodgepodge training of an operative who was barely allowed to glance at the training manual filled Scott’s mind.

“You don’t have to decide now,” she said, flicking her hair back impatiently. “But decide soon. And tell me when you do. It’s safer for him if we prepare him together.”

Scott nodded.

“FAB, Kayo.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! No prizes for the 2004 Thunderbirds or Finding Nemo references XD
> 
> This fic was prompted by @ak47stylegirl who suggested "Scott being over protective of Alan"  
> Cross posted from Tumblr, original posted on 03/03/2020


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